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Despite reports that the UK intends to override key aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol, RTÉ News has learned that Britain has been asking Ireland to intercede with the European Commission to be more flexible on the implementation of the Protocol, and in return has offered to help Ireland with the UK land bridge issue.
The offer has been made through official contacts in recent months.
However, Irish sources say they have treated the offer with caution.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and means that North Korea will operate under the EU’s single market and customs rules.
As such goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will be subject to a number of checks and controls and customs formalities, as these goods will effectively enter the EU single market from a third country.
According to several high-level sources on both sides, London has asked Dublin to urge the European Commission to allow a number of flexibilities on how checks and controls could be applied.
In return, London has said it would be willing to make it easier for Irish truckers to transport goods across the UK land bridge from 1 January next year.
Around 80% of Irish exports to the EU depend on the UK overland route to European ports via Dover and other exit points.
However, once the Brexit transition period ends in January, Irish carriers are at risk of being entangled in long queues at British ports as UK drivers will have to undergo checks and paperwork for the first time. customs when crossing into the EU. .
The EU has recognized Ireland’s difficulty in using the land bridge, and member states have formally asked Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, to take into account Ireland’s unique geographical position when negotiating a future trade relationship with the EU. UK.
However, the issue has yet to feature prominently in the EU-UK negotiations.
Britain is understood to have sought assistance from Dublin on aspects of the Protocol that are the most sensitive to trade unionists.
In particular, officials have asked the Irish government to convince the European Commission that controls and controls on food shipments destined for Northern Ireland supermarket chains should be carried out in warehouses within Britain, rather than in the northern ports.
They have also asked Dublin to push for live animal checks to be carried out at slaughterhouses, rather than at the port of Larne.
According to the Protocol, sanitary and phytosanitary controls and controls (SPS) of food and agri-food products from Great Britain will require the construction of border control posts (BCP), which in turn must be authorized by the European Commission.
This has presented problems for the British government, which has long tried to downplay the scope of controls and infrastructure needs due to its sensitivity to trade unionists.
High-level sources have said that while the Irish government is sympathetic to the need for a pragmatic approach to how strictly EU rules should be applied in northern ports, they have nonetheless taken a cautious approach to the proposals. British.
One reason is that since the Brexit referendum, Ireland has been reluctant to adopt a route of bilateral negotiation with Britain.
This is because the Irish issues raised by Brexit were addressed during the Withdrawal Agreement negotiations by Michel Barnier, on behalf of the remaining 27 EU member states.
Second, the Irish government is cautious about entering into a quasi-negotiation with the UK on an issue that both Dublin and the EU believe has already been negotiated and agreed upon.
In essence, says one official, Dublin is concerned that it was being asked to effectively exchange its influence with the Commission on legal obligations under the Protocol that the UK had signed.
According to the official: “We will not be in a position where we join the British in something and then go back to Brussels.”
This is not how it was done for four years and we are not going to start doing it now.
“We will discuss and explore in a transparent manner with the Commission and [Michel Barnier’s] Task Force, whether they are prepared to negotiate or explore these ideas, but we will not do it bilaterally, and that still stands. “
The EU and the UK have created a Joint Commission to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Northern Ireland Protocol.
London’s initial reluctance to start building infrastructure and putting the necessary IT systems in place led to tensions between London and Brussels that lasted for several months earlier this year.
The British government has said it will not build new customs infrastructure and denied an EU request to allow EU customs and veterinary officials to set up an office in Belfast.
Under Article 12 of the Protocol, both parties agreed that EU officials would be allowed to supervise, on the spot, the implementation of customs and sanitary and phytosanitary controls.
European Commission officials say they understand UK concerns about supermarket trade flows.
However, officials insist that any flexibility must be found within the EU regulation, and in Brussels there is concern that the UK is asking the Commission to bend its own rules.
On the land bridge issue, it is unclear what the UK government has offered in exchange for help with the Protocol.
Irish, French, Dutch and Belgian officials have been discussing for more than a year ways to make the transit of Irish exports to the single market through the land bridge flow as smoothly as possible on the European side.
However, Irish officials admit that asking London to speed up Irish freight vehicles at UK ports like Dover, simply because they are moving cargo from one part of the single market to another, would be tricky.
Some officials have been concerned about a potentially backlash from UK drivers queuing at ports, or even drivers from other EU member states returning to Europe after having made stops in the UK.
Under international traffic regulations, Irish trucks would formally move their goods in sealed vehicles through the UK, which means they should not be subject to British controls or controls.
However, that doesn’t solve the potential bottleneck problem at Dover.
Irish officials say they are not sure what facilities Britain could offer on the land bridge, in exchange for Irish assistance in the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Sources say Dublin has reservations about the feasibility of some suggestions.
“You could be signing up for something that sounds great in theory, but you find that it just isn’t possible to operate effectively,” says a source.
“If you were guaranteed a fast track, that would have some appeal. But we could get resistance from other member states on this, and you would also have to be convinced that it would work in practice.”
Sources also point out that a significant amount of trade would also move from Northern Ireland to Great Britain via the port of Dublin.
These trade flows would also be considered transit shipments as they would move from one part of the UK to another.
Conversations on the subject are understood to remain open.
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